


Aftermath of an explosion

by moonlight_petal



Series: We are family verse [12]
Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Accidents, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bozer is done with Mac's shit, Explosions, Feels, Gen, Hurt Mac, Mac doubts himself, Mac is a good dad, Phoenix family to the rescue, Team as Family, and then happy David, awesome Bozer, emergency lockdown, mostly - Freeform, not a lot David in this one, panicked Jack, sorry - Freeform, unhappy David
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2020-10-07 22:24:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20475464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonlight_petal/pseuds/moonlight_petal
Summary: An accident sends the Phoenix family into a panic and Mac into a deep pit of doubt and self-pity.Of course they all try their best to help and this time they actually get help from an unexpected source.





	Aftermath of an explosion

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dlwtwistr](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dlwtwistr/gifts).

> First of all, sorry it took so long again. This was a hiatus between parts that wasn't exactly planned but this piece gave me quite a bit of trouble. Again I knew exactly what I wanted it to be and how I wanted it to go but it just didn't want to get written that way. Completely uncoopertive this story, that's what it was. So it took quite some time to finish and it turned out a lot shorter than I expected and wanted it to be. But at this point I hope I managed to finish it off well enough.
> 
> The angst isn't as bad as I had intended but I hope it works and it's to your liking, dlwtwistr.
> 
> Also, probably first and last inclusion of James MacGyver in any shape or form.  
Please enjoy.

** Aftermath of an explosion **

"What is it that you're trying to tell me, Jack? That our B-team is having trouble? That they tend to freeze in a crisis? I know that, alright? And it frustrates me to no end but what can I do?" Matty was rubbing her temples tiredly. Jack sat across from her in the war room after overseeing a bit of a clusterfuck of a mission by said B-team.

"Actually yes and no, Matty. I know you know there is trouble brewing but what I'm actually trying to tell you is that I might have an idea how to fix it. Ever since Veronica retired they are unbalanced... I've seen them in training drills, they are far from as hopeless as they seem out in the field and I think that's because they are missing a confident leader. Stevens is doing his job but he's lacking confidence in his decisions the moment something actually is at stake." Jack tried to get his point across. He wasn't all that good at putting what he'd observed into words it seemed.

"I agree but I can't add a new member to the team and expect them to immediately follow their direction. You know it would never work in your team either." Matty sighed.

"But that's the point, they don't need someone new, they just need someone else to take the lead. Come on, Matty, don't tell me you haven't seen it too." the agent looked at the woman in surprise and disbelief. Matty never had overlooked something so glaringly obvious before.

"Seen what, Jack? Please excuse me that I might have missed something while trying to work around my best team taking a baby break, Oversight buggering off and leaving me with the pieces, all the while having to fight damn stupid politicians." Matty snapped back sarcastically.

Jack sighed and raised his hands in defeat.

"Alright, point taken, sorry. You know just say the word if I can help with anything... anyway, what I've been trying to say is, that we need to regroup B-team. Make Carver their leader, the kid is bright and he's able to think ahead several steps in his tactics like nobody's buisness. If one of them can pull B-team out of this slump now, I'm telling you it's him. He just needs your backing, he won't ever try to take the lead by himself."

"You realise that Carver is barely twenty, right Jack?" Matty asked tightly.

"Yes, which is why I say he needs the back-up. I've talked to the kid, he respects his team mates too much to suggest something like this, he fears they won't accept him as a leader. That's why he only ever opens his mouth during missions when he senses that someone's life is on the line. Honestly, Stevens himself should have noticed this... Look, it's just my opinion based on what I've seen, but the way this is going at the moment what do we have to lose? Talk to them, let them run training with Carver as leader and see if it works, it's... what the hell?"

Jack got interrupted by the light suddenly flickering in the war room and a blaring alarm going off. Instantly he was on his feet.

Matty had grabbed her tablet, quickly flicking through the building schematics. She turned pale when she found the origin of the emergency alarm.

"It's the lab... go, Jack!" she told him, turning to their communication system.

"Mac? MacGyver, status report." she snapped into the mic but there was no reply. "Bozer? Talk to me! Riley?!"

With the last name she had called, skipping from lab room frequency to lab room frequency, she could hear some soft shuffling.

"Yeah, Matty, I'm here, a little shaken up..." the hacker coughed slightly. "Bozer is down for the count, he must have hit his head or something, judging from the wound at his temple. We're locked in though." she coughed again.

"Emergency lock down..." Matty said tensely. "What the hell happened, Riley?"

"No idea, it wasn't us..." Riley said, distress and pain evident in her cough raw voice because both women knew what Riley's words actually meant: it wasn't them, whatever happend, had happened in Mac's lab.

~*~

Jack took several steps at the same time on his way down to the labs, accompanied by the blinking of warning lights and the alarm that grew louder in volume the closer he got to his destination.

Quickly he covered his mouth and nose with his elbow when he turned the corner to Mac and Bozer's labs. The ventilation was doing it's job but the hallway was still filled with smoke and heat.

It was obvious which one of the labs was the center of whatever had happened.

Jack pulled hard on the doors.

"Mac! Buddy! Talk to me, are you alright? Mac!"

The door didn't budge and the smoke inside the room was even denser than outside and that made it difficult for Jack to assess the situation through the small window in the door, but what he saw made his blood freeze in his veins.

The lab was pretty much in pieces, whatever happened inside definitely had enough force to rip the room apart.

And then he saw Mac on the floor, unmoving, bleeding and half covered by a shelf and next to him a slightly singed stuffed monkey and Jack's heart stuttered to a stop. David!

With renewed urgency Jack pounded and kicked at the door but with the emergency lock down still intact, it didn't budge.

With a sharp cough he pulled his phone out.

"Matty, we need back-up down here like yesterday, I can't get inside and Mac is out, the lab looks like a bomb exploded and..." Jack choked on the smoke and the fear gripping him like never before. "Mac, Matty... and David..." he whispered.

"Jack!" his boss barked through the line, trying hard to get his attention. "Riley is working on the lock down and help is on the way but I need you to calm down right now, Jack. Don't lose it now, you're no help to them like that!" she snapped in a carefully emotionless voice which was far from what she was feeling on the inside.

And before Jack could say any more, a tack team came running down the hallway with the necessary equipment to break the door down if Riley can't hack her way around the lock down. They were soon followed by the small squad of firemen who were employed by the Phoenix.

Just when they got ready for the first swing of an axe, the door next to Mac's lab opened and Riley stumbled out.

"It's down, the door should be open now... Bozer needs medical attention..." she coughed and slid down the wall the next moment, thoroughly exhausted.

Jack was torn for about a second between running inside the lab to look after Mac and making sure Riley was alright but the young woman relieved him of the decision. She looked up and mouthed 'go' and that was all Jack needed.

"Mac!" he yelled as he skidded to the blond man's side, ignoring the flames still working their way across the room. They had people for that after all.

With shaking hands, Jack touched Mac's neck to feel for his pulse. It felt like a ton of rocks lifted from his lungs and heart when he felt the faint and thready but nontheless *there* beat against his fingers.

"Thank god..." Jack gasped and then looked around, at the space that had been David's play area and his breath caught in his chest again.

"Dalton, your phone!" Taylor snapped next to the frozen man, waving a hand in front of Jack's face.

The words didn't register for another second but then Jack fumbled with his phone.

"Jack! David is with me! Do you hear me, Dalton? David was with Jill when it happened, she just brought him up to the war room. He's fine and unharmed, Jack! Do you understand?" Matty's voice was a touch more emotional in his ears than before.

"David is fine?!" he murmued, turning back to Mac. "Thank god, once again... but Mac's in bad shape, we need a stretcher down here, he's bleeding and I don't dare to move him right now unless absolutely necessary."

"Already called, Jack. It's going to be okay, it's better you don't move him at all, just make sure he keeps on breathing!" Matty told him and in that moment it sounded like the most calming thing.

"It's going to be fine, you listen to me, Mac... hang in there..."

~*~

That had been two days ago and Mac had yet to wake up again.

Riley had been fine after the medics had made sure to give her some oxygen to clear away the effects the smoke had had on her and Bozer had been up again as well after a while. A minor concussion but other than that he was fine as well.

The whole Phoenix family took turns at looking after David and staying with Mac which wasn't as easy as they had hoped with the little boy getting more inconsolable by the hour he wasn't allowed to see his father.

"You know when I said that we need to work on David and Mac's dependency issues, *this* wasn't what I had in mind..." Riley sighed after she had managed to finally put David down for a nap.

"I know, Riles... I doubt anyone had something like this in mind. I mean seriously... first Murdoc, then the fever, now this... it's like they can't catch a break... I just hope this won't mess with Mac's head too much once he wakes up." Jack sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. Bozer was at medical and Matty had called some time before that she would come by soon.

The young woman looked skeptically at Jack.

"Seriously? You still hope this *won't* mess with Mac?"

"Oh it will mess with him, I have no illusions there, Riley, we just have to make sure to nip his doubts in the bud or... well, I don't want to think about the possibilities..." Jack admitted softly.

"I'm with Jack here, especially with the news I have..." Matty's voice interrupted their conversation from the door.

"What news, Matty?" Riley asked, looking at her boss anxiously.

"The news that this whole mess was an honest to god accident. I had a whole bunch of people looking at Mac's lab to try and recreate what has happened down there and it seems like, well... the explosion was the result of an accident or even a miscalculation on Mac's part, whatever the case, there was no outside sabotage." Matty explained what they had learned.

"Well, I mean, that's good... if someone had sabotaged Mac's lab, that would have meant we had trouble brewing on the inside once again but for Mac's sake I don't know if I had preferred that, to be honest." Jack sighed.

"True, if it had been foul play, it would have been out of Mac's hands, seeing that it wasn't though and he likely knows it was his mistake that put him in danger, he will blame himself and that's why I agree with Jack, as soon as Mac wakes up, we have to work together to make him understand that accidents can happen and there is no reason whatsoever to doubt his abilities of being a father." Matty explained. "Because that's what this will boil down to if I know Mac."

Jack nodded sadly.

"Absolutely. He's made a lot of progress but this will kick the little confidence he had in his own abilities right to the bottom again. It's so frustrating because I honestly know nobody who's a more dedicated father than Mac."

Riley, despite all her differences with Jack in the beginning was inclined to beg to differ on that point but kept her silence for now. That's not what mattered now.

"Should... I mean, should we inform Nikki about what happened?" she voiced another concern.

"No, I don't see any reason to involve her in this matter. Had something happened to David, I'd say it might have been the right call but since he's fine, better keep her out of it. She made her stance clear and if she comes back now, that would basically be the death sentence for Mac's confidence." Jack interjected immediately.

Their conversation got interrupted by Riley's phone and a soft whimper over the baby monitor.

"Bozer?" the woman asked anxiously.

"He's coming around slowly..." were Bozer's only words before he cut the call again.

"Thank god, I'll look after David, you two go to him!" Matty said, already halfway to David's room.

~*~

"Buddy, look at me, please! You're a freaking genius, the smartest guy I've met but even you can make a mistake... accidents happen, I don't understand why you can't see that." Jack implored, not for the first time.

Another two days had passed since Mac had woken up. Two days of the whole Phoenix family talking at Mac to convince him that what happened didn't make him a bad father. And yet, Mac refused to have David anywhere close to him or acknowledge the truth in their words.

In fact, Mac had yet to string together two full sentences on the topic to any of them. In a way it was understandable that he was silent most of the time because talking still hurt a bit since he inhaled a lot of smoke and his entire chest was bruised but they all knew this kind of silence had very little to do with the effects of the explosion and a whole lot with the very dark pit that Mac was stuck in mentally.

"No... you don't get it... accidents might happen... but what father takes his baby son into a lab? That was a desaster in the making from the start... reckless, idiotic... I shouldn't be allowed to take care of a tiny person like him... he deserves more!" Mac rasped, glaring at Jack for the first time in a while.

The older man was taken aback by this sudden -and might he add painful sounding- outburst.

"That's where you're wrong, kid. David has everything he could ask for in life. An awesome dad who turned his whole life upside down from one day to the next and a family who loves and adores him. What exactly more could he need? You seriously think he would be better off with strangers? Seriously Mac? You of all people should know better than that!" it might have been a bit of a low blow but Jack was desperate to get his point across. "Plus, who is to say that other people wouldn't make mistakes as well? It might not be an explosion but there are thousands of ways things can go wrong. We know that, Mac. Who if not us? But when it comes down to it, David still is best off with his own father who loves and adores him and more importantly who David loves and adores and misses like crazy in return."

Jack sighed as Mac turned his head away, tears brimming in his eyes.

"Look, Mac, I do understand where you're coming from, I really do, but I honestly don't agree with you. And I know for a fact that the others don't either." tentatively Jack grabbed Mac's shoulder, squeezing it gently.

"For the first time..." Mac whispered, choked. "For the first time..." he started again. "...I can see why my dad did what he did... and I can't help but wonder if he didn't make the right call and I had it wrong all along..."

The older cursed inwardly, cussing out the older MacGyver for leaving his own son traumatized enough for him to even consider this thought.

"Don't, buddy. Don't go there, it's not true! Your dad made a purely selfish decision when he left you behind, you know that as well as I do! What is happening here now, that has nothing to do with you father!"

Jack insisted, looking up when he heard the soft click of the door behind him, his eyes widening when Bozer entered with a determined expression and a silently crying David in his arms.

"Whatever this is, it's got to stop now, bro!" Bozer snapped, stepping closer to the bed.

"Dada..." David wailed immediately, scrambling on Bozer's arms the moment he registered the presence of his father.

For all intents and purposes, Mac looked downright terrified when he was faced with his son.

"Boze, no..." Mac whimpered but his best friend ignored him completely, carefully settling David onto the mattress next to his dad. The baby immediately crawled closer, curling his fists into Mac's shirt as if he never intended to let go again.

"No, Mac, I've had it now. I get it, okay? I do understand but this little guy has been missing you like crazy for days now. We tried but he needs his dad and that's you, not Jack, not me- *you*! What happened was a huge shock to us all but Mac you have to get it into you thick skull that David is fine and healthy and he doesn't understand why he can't see you and it hurts. This isn't about you, it's about him! You're his dad, act like it and that includes times where you have no clue what the heck you're doing! It's hardly the first time either! Got it? What happened, happened. It was an accident and it won't happen again. You learn from it and you move on!" Bozer ranted before he plopped down in the seat on the opposite side of Mac's bed, thoroughly exhausted.

Mac was stunned silent and Jack was walking the line between awed and amused. Never before had he seen Bozer like this, putting Mac in his place pretty effectively. It was a sight to be seen, he had to admit and his respect for the younger man grew a whole lot since he actually had done, what Jack himself had been too afraid to do.

"Dada... home..." David mumbled, already on the verge of falling asleep next to Mac after days of barely sleeping at all.

The tears in Mac's eyes returned full force and with visibly shaking hands, he cautiously carded his fingers through David's hair.

"Soon..." he whispered.

~*~

It hadn't been that easy of course. The moment Mac had found his equilibrium again, he had made Jack and Bozer go and take David with them again. It had been like two sides in his head who were waging a war and he had to do it alone.

Another three days later, Mac was released from medical. His family had made it a point to completely ignore his wishes during that time and had brought David to see him every single day of them because even if Mac didn't notice it himself yet, David's presence helped him cope a lot more than stewing in his own head did.

At home a surprise awaited him in form of a letter. A surprise not one of the family expected.

Mac, still under orders to rest as much as possible, had taken David to his room to put him down for a nap and settled in the chair next to it, cautiously turning around the envelope several times before opening it.

_>Son,_

_I've debated with myself for a while now if I should write this letter. I know after our last confrontation you actually have no reason to read any further than this but if you find it in you to continue, hear me out, please._

_I've been away for quite some time now and don't worry, I have no intention to return anytime soon. I still have work to do. But I want you to know that after everything that happened, I actually took the time now to reflect on my own actions and how you handled the sudden appearance of your own son._

_I made mistakes, Angus. I do understand that now. I still stand by what I did because I did it thinking it was the best for you. That doesn't make it any less wrong in retrospect. It's late now and it probably doesn't mean a lot to you after all those years of hurt I put you through, but I am sorry._

_But as important this apology is and as necessary, it's not the main reason I finally took the time to write to you._

_No, the reason is the current happenings at the Phoenix. I'm away and I might have given up my post but I still heard what happened and I want you to know something, son. This isn't your fault. Nothing that happened the past year is your fault._

_Being who we are, our families will always be a bit more prone to difficult situations but please don't make the same mistake I made all those years ago. Walking away from you was the worst mistake I ever made, don't repeat that. David needs you and you need David just as much._

_Accidents will always happen one way or another, that's not something unique to our family. Even the most ordinary people can have brushes with accidental death and destruction. I have a pretty good idea what you are thinking now in the aftermath and I also can imagine what Dalton, Bozer and the others have to say on the topic. And if I ever gave you a piece of advice I hoped you would take, it's this one: listen to them, trust them and your own instincts. You are ten times more the father I ever was and that's a good thing. Don't doubt that now!_

_Get well soon, son._

_\- Your father<_

~*~

Mac's eyes were wet yet again when he finished the letter. His thoughts and emotions in turmoil but one look at the sleeping boy in his bed made up his mind. It would be difficult but he could work through this. He wouldn't be like his father, taking the cowards way out. He will stay with David and be his father with an awesome family having his back.


End file.
